(Contains slight spoilers) Ian McEwan's gripping and disturbing psychological thriller has, alas, been turned into a frustratingly dull movie. Despite a successful depiction of the shocking balloon accident that sets the story in motion, director Roger Michell fails after this stylish opening to generate any of the psychological tension that made the novel such a page-turner. Characters that seemed multi-faceted and tormented in print seem merely bland and humourless on screen. Far from making one sweat with fear, the basic "temperature" of the film is glacial (and I don't mean chilling). I don't think this is necessarily the fault of the actors: while they are unable to kickstart the film into something resembling life, Daniel Craig and Samantha Morton nevertheless bring intensity and integrity to their roles as Joe and Claire. Rhys Ifans, unfortunately, seems to me simply miscast as flaky loner Jed - Ifans is the wrong kind of flaky. Nor can I recall Jed's menace or madness being made so explicit so quickly in the novel. In McEwan's measured prose it kind of sneaks up on you quietly rather than being telegraphed as it is here. Much of the inner drama of Joe and Claire's relationship breakdown is similarly lost in translation. One is left with a sequence of meals and dinner parties which provide the backdrop for a chronicle of Joe's deterioration, without particularly managing to illuminate it. And the fact that Joe never goes to the police (or even seems to consider involving them) even when Jed's stalking of him is well-established and increasingly disruptive, is a major plot weakness that's masked in the nuances of the novel but on screen looms fatally large. It's hard to empathise with a character who lets things get out of hand so easily.<br /><br />The friend I saw the movie with enjoyed it and was engrossed in the story, but then again he hadn't read the book. It may be that without any prior knowledge of the novel this film works as a low key thriller in its own right, but I can't see this adaptation of "Enduring Love" becoming an enduring success.